Any time you’re watching a film in which a character has to train/prepare for something quickly, you’re often treated to a sharply edited series of images set to a rousing score or pop song. Inevitably someone in the room will make a joke comparing what you’re seeing to a certain boxing movie from the late 70s that has become firmly ensconced in the visual vocabulary of American cinema.
For this week’s For Your Consideration, we hope you’ll revisit Rocky, just added to Netflix’s Watch Instant service.
Who Made It: There is a common misconception that Sylvester Stallone directed Rocky. This is partially based on the fact that he directed parts II, III, and IV. The first Rocky was directed by John G. Avildsen, who also directed the first three Karate Kid films and the rodeo drama 8 Seconds. Stallone did however write the script for this classic sports film.
Who’s In It: Obviously it’s impossible to talk about Rocky without talking about star Sylvester Stallone—the two being inextricably linked. Rocky was the movie that put Stallone on the map and, to this day, is the role for which he is most remembered (equaled possibly only by Rambo). Stallone may not be the most emotive of actors, but there is something sweetly charming and wholly authentic about his performance.
The story of Rocky and Sylvester Stallone’s actual life story are far more similar than one might suppose. Stallone was basically flat broke when he wrote the script, even considering giving away his beloved pet dog for fear that he couldn’t afford to feed him anymore. Despite this, Stallone only agreed to sell the rights to the producers of the film if they allowed him to star in it; a bold gamble that definitely paid off.
What’s It About: An aspiring Philadelphia boxer, working as a collector for a loan shark, dreams of competing for the title. When current champion Apollo Creed visits the city, he decides to set up an exhibition match with a local upstart in order to improve his own image. Rocky gets the shot. What was supposed to be a quick victory for the arrogant champ turns into the fight of his career when the hungry, and well-prepared Rocky fights his heart out just to earn a little respect.
Why You Should Watch It:
Why is it that a movie like Rocky still resonates with audiences today? Are there really that many boxing fans out there? No, in fact Rocky is a film that speaks to those among us who don’t even count themselves sports fans at all. Rocky’s journey from humble beginnings to success and acclaim is one driven by tireless dedication and an unflappable dream. This is the reason that Rocky is the quintessential underdog story. That same adherence to a dream, and the resolve to do anything and everything necessary to achieve it is a trait to which people in all walks of life aspire. Rocky is a reflection of our collective need to rise above our station in life and achieve greatness.
Apart from Stallone’s performance, the most indelible aspect of Rocky is that seminal training montage. Spurred on by his lovably surly trainer (played by the incredible Burgess Meredith), Rocky puts his body through hell. He proceeds through a rather unorthodox regimen that includes sparring with sides of beef, running with bricks, and climbing a now legendary pair of steps. It is possibly one of the most inspiring sequences in cinema, made all the more powerful by Bill Conti’s thundering “Gonna Fly.”
That final fight is fantastic for a number of reasons. Apollo’s entrance into the ring is punctuated by overconfident garishness and he taunts that Rocky will be knocked out in three rounds. But as round after round ticks by with no sign of quit from Rocky, the champ begins to get nervous. Rocky climbs back to his feet after getting knocked down even as his trainer advises him to stay on the mat. Rocky opts to have his swelling eye cut open rather than throw in the towel for crying out loud! He gives the champ a fight, and a rib injury, he will not soon forget. The film’s ending is a proud moment in which Rocky celebrates the fact that he has proven to the world his ability to compete; that a hard-working nobody can stand toe-to-toe with cocksure, complacent legends.

What's better than the best movie ever made? How about a solid movie made by the same director that failed to live up to the hype created by his previous film and has thus been cast into the shadows of cinema history, forgotten and unappreciated? Well, no... I guess by nature that is not better than the best movie ever made. But it's still pretty good. So, not too shabby that they're both coming out on Blu-ray.
Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece Pulp Fiction and his deserves-way-more-credit-than-it-gets followup Jackie Brown will both be available on Blu-ray on October 4th.
Pulp Fiction was the surprise sensation in 1994 that turned Tarantino into a household name. As you already know, it follows (non-chronologically) two hit men, their boss, his wife, a crooked boxer and a pair of inexperienced criminals through a series of often deadly events over the course of two days. It's a stylistic, lyrical and heavily bloody but consistently engrossing movie that is in just about everybody's Top Ten. Stars include Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames, with an appearance by Harvey Keitel.
Jackie Brown pits a collection of dissimilar strangers (a flight attendant, a bail bondsman and a criminal, among others) in a race for half a million dollars cash. It's sort of like Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but corpsier. Tarantino's impressive cast includes Pam Grier, Robert DeNiro, Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton and Robert Foster.
Both Blu-rays will be available on October 4th. Watch the trailers below to remind yourself how good these movies are.
Pulp Fiction (1994)

DreamWorks Pictures Real Steel has had its share of criticism since the first trailer hit the web. One particularly amusing comment was, “why should I care about robot boxing?” – this was coming from a guy who flocked to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. “It looks like such a cliché” – a statement which is itself a cliché these days. To me, all the advance negativity has made the film somewhat of an underdog in spite of its dream team of talent, including director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and star Hugh Jackman. This is, however, quite fitting as its rousing story follows three down-and-out characters fighting for their shot at greatness. It’s like the Rocky of robot movies, and it could be the sleeper hit of the fall season.
“[This movie] is way more in the sports movie paradigm than the science fiction paradigm,” said Levy on the Detroit, Michigan set of his pricey new production, and based on what I saw at the city’s famous Cobo Center, he wasn’t kidding. When I first walked into the arena, it looked like a major heavyweight fight had just ended. The place was mostly empty, with a few dozen spectators (who were really extras) lingering in the stands, trying to get a closer look at their champion before he left the ring. The filmmaker was actually shooting what I believe may be the final scene in the picture: the camera is set up behind Jackman, Dakota Goyo (who plays his estranged son) and Atom, the nearly obsolete sparring-bot that connects the two, and it’s slowly pulled upward to capture a rapturous crowd cheering as the trio embraces their World Robot Boxing league victory and one another. All this is set to a booming orchestral score that sounded a lot like the final notes from the original Rocky, which made it difficult for the lot of journalists (myself included) on set to keep nostalgic tears from running down our cheeks, but that’s the very emotional response that Levy and Jackman are hoping Real Steel will give audiences.
“When Spielberg called me up and asked if I’d do this movie, I said ‘yes, but I don’t want to do just another robot fetish movie.’ [I want to] do a movie that has robots in it, but make it unabashedly human,” the filmmaker told us after showing the group an FX-heavy sizzle reel and footage of Sugar Ray Leonard choreographing various fights. Though he was admittedly fascinated by the technology his visual effects team used to create the bot-bouts (including software developed for Avatar), Levy was adamant about the spectacle never overpowering the soul of the film: “The father-son story is not in Richard Matheson’s short story (from which John Gatins’ script is based), but it became the heart of the movie.”
It’s the unlikely bond between not only an absentee father and the son he never knew he had that’s at the center of Real Steel, but their connection to Atom as well, and the degree that the filmmakers can make you believe in this “love triangle” of sorts is the biggest challenge the movie faces. “The movie is really less boxing than you’d imagine. There are a few key fights, but really it’s just [about] relationships,” said Jackman when asked about whether it was the futuristic setting or the family drama that drew him to the project. “We have to always remember that the sport has to be relevant to the story so the story can work without the sport.” And so, if you removed robot boxing from the film entirely you’d be left with an endearing (if formulaic) narrative and some strong, conflicted characters; two elements of production that can make any film a winner.
For his part, Jackman seemed to be thrilled with getting to play former bruiser turned robo-promotor Charlie Kenton: “The thing about Charlie, and what I’ve really enjoyed about him, is that he’s desperate. He’s down and out, but he’s also a really charming character in a way. His actions are pretty reprehensible in the first part of the movie, but you don’t hate him. He’s trying for another chance, and because you understand where he’s coming from, you’re kind of [hopefully] on his side.” If the whole cast is as enthusiastic about their roles as Jackman, and if their performances are as multi-faceted as he says his is, it may not matter what any naysayers think about robot boxing.
, and she's someone who genuinely understands and knows this stuff. In fact, the kid kind of knows as much as Charlie. Charlie is good at what he needs to be. As we said, his passion is boxing. And so he's had to learn what he needs to know. And he's not very successful at it, by the way. When you meet him, he's really not doing great.
Do we get any shots of you from the past, in the ring?
HJ: Well, we decided that I'd be more out of shape. And so before that happened, we shot some sequences of me that are stills in the movie and you don't see any video or film flashback, but you get a sense of it from that. And there are scenes where he explains what he was like as a fighter. But then I put on a little weight so he could look like he could've fought, but is a little out of shape now. And I came to the first fitting and Shawn was like, "Okay, I think we need to back off a little bit" because I was sort of preparing for another movie too, so I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now.
It sounds like you have a lot of creative input in the movie. Is there anything specific that you bring to it?
HJ: Yeah, Shawn and I got a script that is quite different than this. Structurally it's very similar and there was always a great concept and idea, but Shawn really took it to another level. He worked on it for seven months. And in the beginning, Shawn came to my room -- and the way he works, you just start ad-libbing -- and there are at least two or three big scenes that came out of the ad-libbing we did in my living room. I'm not saying they were my ideas, the credit goes to Shaun. Creatively, Shawn is very, very open and even Dakota, he's saying things and Shawn will listen and give it a try. And I suppose, maybe because of his comedy background, he's very loose.
Getting back to the flashbacks, I know you said there's a severed relationship with the mother character -- the ex-wife -- will we see any of that?
HJ: She's dead at the beginning of the movie. I mean, you hear a little about it but I don't want to give too much away. But you understand, you kind of get the sense of who she was. And the idea of the mother stays alive because you're invested in the son. It was a real relationship, but it wasn't like they were married for 15 years, you know what I mean, but it was obviously a genuine relationship. And the way that Charlie handles it, he regrets it. It was interesting talking with Sugar Ray because he was very open about his personal life with me. And i don't want to get into too many details without his permission, but he said he's remarried now, but when he was first fighting, he said that you're so into it as a fighter or boxer that I think you can neglect things. And because it's all encompassing -- that desire to reach the top of the mountain -- which is very lonely, you're by yourself reaching for that pinnacle, and Charlie sort of has that. It's all or nothing and he's going for it. And relationships, even the relationship he has with Evangeline's character, everything else suffers.
What's the overall tone of the movie? Is it a little more of a family film?
HJ: I will genuinely say that I would love to go see this movie. I think you guys will like this movie, my son will like this movie. When I read this script, I thought, wow this is like those great Spielberg movies. This reminds me of that. They're really genuine with complexity and characters and magic and it will have you jumping out of your seat. And Shaun is very funny, smart, he wears his heart on his sleeve. I mean, he's just all heart. You see it in his movies. They're positive. And there's a confidence and reassurance that goes with him and you see it in his movies. But I'll be surprised if this film doesn't bring a tear to your eye while make you jump out of your seat at the end.
What's it like to just see stuff like this on the set?
HJ: It's so much fun. We did one fight sequence when I was here for six days. And I said on X-Men, that would've taken a month. At least three weeks. And it would've been maybe two units. This is one unit. It's so specific and amazing because Shawn is in control of everything. He's not just handing over a canvas to a bunch of kids who are drawing the animation and then three months later, the director sees it. This way is so much better and so much more efficient and much better for storytelling.
How does it change for you? You're still acting with guys on stilts and with tennis balls.
HJ: Yeah, but I know exactly what it is. That's the difference. I know exactly what I'm seeing. Look, you see all the time in movies spots where an actor goes, "oooh," and he's just made it up. And then someone draws in a pterodactyl flying at his head and you can just feel it. And often, in close ups, I get to use the real robot, and have you seen the robot yet? You'll meet him and you'll get the feeling as soon as you're there and when they're operating it. He'll look at you and talk and he'll nod. That makes a big difference, being able to see makes a huge difference. I watch it just before we do the take.

The 300 hunk joined the Celtics team, which included legendary players Henrik Larsson, Neil Lennon and John Hartson, for the game against the retired Manchester United squad, whose all-star additions were comic Patrick Kielty and boxer Nigel Benn.
The two teams battled it out in front of 50,000 fans at Celtic Park in Glasgow - where Butler grew up - and the star helped his side win with a final score of 5-2.
The money raised from ticket sales will go to Oxfam's East Africa crisis appeal, benefiting the millions of people left without food after the continent was hit by one of the worst droughts in its history.

The hardman, nicknamed Sly, started off as a penniless actor, but shot to fame in the 1970s playing rags-to-riches boxer Rocky Balboa.
Stallone went on to become one of Hollywood's highest paid actors, filming six Rocky movies and four in his other famous franchise featuring violent Vietnam veteran John Rambo.
And despite now hitting retirement age, Stallone has no plans to slow down - he's already lined up to resurrect his character in action series The Expendables next year (12), alongside movie hardmen Jason Statham and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
To celebrate Stallone's milestone age, WENN has compiled 10 fascinating facts about the action hero. Happy birthday, Sly!
- Stallone's first starring role was in The Party at Kitty and Stud's - a softcore porn film. He was paid $200 (£125) for two days work.
- In 1991, he teamed up with fellow movie tough-guys Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger to launch a Planet Hollywood restaurant.
- He was nominated for two Academy Awards - for Best Actor and Best Writing - for Rocky, but despite his extensive career, he's never received another Oscars nod.
- Stallone's famous slurred speech is a result of paralysis in his face caused by birth complications.
- When he was close to graduating at the University of Miami, Stallone dropped out to pursue his acting career.
- He is a big fan of luxury Montegrappa fountain pens - and signed up as a consultant for the company last year (10).
- Stallone has been married three times and has five children.
- The actor rewarded his loyal dog with a role in the Rocky films - the bull mastiff used in the boxer's training scenes was the star's own pet.
- He enjoys oil painting and loves the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.
- Stallone has sustained a number of injuries from his roles over the years - he once famously spent four days in intensive care after Dolph Lundgren punched him for a scene in Rocky IV and broke his neck during filming of 2010's The Expendables.

The Filipino sportsman is said to have made an agreement with bosses at RBM Group International in 2009 to record 12 tracks.
Bosses at the music company took legal action at Los Angeles County Superior Court last month (Nov10) accusing the boxer of failing to deliver the material. The lawsuit added that he left the company $200,000 (£133,333) out of pocket and caused it to lose out on profits of $10 million (£6.7 million).
However, lawyers for Pacquiao have fired back at the allegations in their own suit, insisting RBM chiefs only paid him $40,000 (£26,667) up front instead of the agreed $160,000 (£106,667).
The papers add that the failure to deliver the full amount up front meant he was no longer obliged to record the songs, and suggests RBM managers are simply jealous of his recent boxing winnings of $15 million (£10 million).
Quoting a famous phrase by Saint John Chrysostom, his lawyer adds, "As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man."

The funnyman portrayed the 10-year-old title character in the movie, despite being 44 at the time.
He was required to shave his legs for the role but was in such a rush to get to the set, he forgot to do so and had to ask the on-set hairdresser, Christine, and her assistant to help him with hair removal cream Nair.
He recalls, "I rushed in and forgot to shave my legs. I meet my female hairdresser and her assistant and my make-up artist John and I say, 'Look guys, why don't we do this simultaneously.' So I took off my pants and I had my boxers on. I put my legs up onto the counter and I said, 'Why don't you ladies just Nair my legs and we can do the make-up now too?'"
Short only realised he had been flashing his penis at the women when they finished the job and he looked down to check out their handiwork: "I'm talking to John, they finish 'Nairing' (sic) my legs and I look down and my penis is hanging out of my boxer underwear. So I was completely frightened and terrified but I don't say anything to them because I just met them."
But he managed to make light of the situation after establishing a friendship with the hairdressers and the pair laughed off the embarrassing incident.
He adds, "A week later I went up to Christine and I said, 'The first day we met, was my penis hanging out of my boxers?' and she said, 'Yes. And if I knew you then like I know you now, I would have shoved that thing right back in!'"

The heavyweight was forced to emigrate to Europe after breaching the Mann Act.
Democrat Jackson led the charge for a pardon and was backed by former presidential candidate John McCain, among others.
His resolution, which was passed on Thursday (30Jul09), calls for President Barack Obama to pardon Johnson for his 1913 conviction.

Set in post-World War III Los Angeles Southland Tales takes place over the three days leading up to a huge Fourth of July celebration as the world is crumbling around the city’s citizens who are living in a city that has been turned into an armed camp by the government. There’s a huge cast of characters in this disjointed tale written and directed by Richard Kelly including Boxer Santaros (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) an action-movie star married to Madeline (Mandy Moore) the spoiled rich daughter of a powerful senator. Boxer turns up near the beach in L. A. suffering from complete amnesia; he’s watched by a military sniper named Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) who also narrates the film and seems to hold the key to the mystery of what happened to Santaros in the desert that caused his mental breakdown. Meanwhile Santaros falls for activist porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as radical anti-government forces led by Cyndi Pinziki (Nora Dunn) plot a huge terrorist event to take place on the Fourth. Add in a police officer (Seann William Scott) who may be the link between all the other characters and you’ve got the gist of the story. Unfortunately there are easily 10 other characters wandering around in this mishmash of a plot played by everyone from Miranda Richardson John Larroquette and Christopher Lambert to Wallace Shawn Kevin Smith Jon Lovitz and Bai Ling and not one of them seems to have a clue as to what is actually going on--which is exactly how the audience watching feels too. It is a mystery how so many usually talented actors stumbled into this incoherent mess of a movie much less how they have all succeeded in giving some of the worst performances of their careers. Dwayne Johnson the usually likable wrestler-turned-actor leads the pack resorting to rolling his eyes and twitching his fingers to portray a man in emotional distress. Sarah Michelle Gellar is equally abysmal; her ridiculous porn-star/talk-show-host character comes off as a complete caricature not a characterization. Miranda Richardson simply chews the scenery and Wallace Shawn actually does a caricature of himself which is just weird. It is no wonder that when this inane flick debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 people booed and walked out. The shock is that Sony coughed up more money for special effects and a re-edit--perhaps that is because there are so many well-known names on the cast list? Whatever the reason the still two-and-a-half-hour film is so jumbled enervating and downright boring that we’re pretty certain you’ll be tempted to head for the bathroom and never come back. The only thing that might keep you interested is if you have a Bai Ling fetish (although why you would pick her to obsess over is a complete mystery); she spends the movie vamping it up in costumes that make her look like the porn star instead of Gellar. Writer-director Richard Kelly had a cult hit with Donnie Darko which apparently made him believe that there is a market for movies that are incredibly incoherent and lacking in the most basic narrative focus. Sadly he’s made just that movie with Southland Tales; in fact he explains himself in three graphic novels and a large Web site the prequel to the movie that we apparently should have investigated beforehand since the film is supposed to be the last three chapters of the saga. But therein lies the rub as no filmmaker should assume that moviegoers will have taken the time to do those things before entering the theater. For anyone who has not embraced this self-involved filmmaker’s other work Southland Tales simply comes across as a mixed-up jumble of half-baked ideas performed by actors who look like they are involved in a high school video project not a bona fide Hollywood movie. And if the steady stampede for the door during the screening we sat all the way through is any indication this is a movie that will have patrons who have actually paid for the experience considering a quick sneak away into a different movie in the multiplex. Lord knows that only someone who is paid to watch would actually sit through this whole film. After all those are two hours and 24 minutes of life that we will never get back.

Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) is an ordained minister who loses her faith after losing her family in a tragedy and has turned to debunking purported miracles around the world. Along with her handsome religious sidekick Ben (Idris Elba) she explains away one religious phenomenon after another. Then a science teacher (David Morrissey) from a small town called Haven comes to her lecture to ask for help. It turns out the river running through town has turned red with blood and the townspeople are blaming it on a 12-year-old girl (AnnaSophia Robb) who looks a lot like Katherine's dead daughter. Before the religious fanatics of Haven turn into a lynch mob Katherine gets help from the girl's very crazy mother (Andrea Frankle) the town's sheriff (William Ragsdale) and a priest she once worked with (Stephen Rea). Nevertheless plagues start happening: Frogs drop from the skies locusts swarm cows die kids get lice people get boils on their skin and more. Katherine begins wondering if the girl really is to blame and what she has to do to stop it. Two-time Oscar winner Swank once again nails it as a smart strong professor. Some people would say she's slumming doing a horror movie but Swankbrings the necessary gravitas and charm to a potentially one-dimensional role. And she always looks great in a tank top whether she's playing a boxer a boy or a teacher. Her connection with Elba (Daddy's Little Girls) is palpable as well as her connection with Morrissey (Basic Instinct 2). All three of them have seething sensuality and dark secrets that make their characters intriguing every step of the way. Although she may get confused a lot with Dakota Fanning AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge to Terabithia) has proven herself a fine young actress and is particularly odd and creepy in The Reaping. The usually great Stephen Rea (Crying Game) is the only one out of place. He seems to be just phoning it in sometimes quite literally. The supporting cast of rural townsfolk is oddball enough to be distinguishable each with their own quirk. Director Stephen Hopkins knows how to put together a suspenseful film. He has helmed the pilot to 24 as well as movies Under Suspicion Predator 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Sometimes however he resorts to cheap scares that really aren't necessary and an overbearing score by John Frizzell leads too obviously into frightening moments. The Reaping is also confusing at times and it's never clear why the plagues are invading this tiny town. Swank delivers long monologues on actual history and Biblical verse but thankfully makes them interesting. Once the plagues unravel however all the pretensions melt away. The special effects aren’t solely dependant on computer graphics even if a few of the final plagues go over-the-top. Overall The Reaping does what it intends to do assuring more than a few jumps.